“But what’s disappointing for us, similar to some of the matches we lost last year, we gave the ball away cheaply and we really paid for it dearly tonight.

“They remind me of the Kilkenny hurlers in the second half of the noughties, where they don’t just bang in one, they bang in two ruthlessly and efficiently in a very short period of time and put games to bed.”

But Dublin were far from efficient in the first half and looked almost disinterested at times in that opening 35 minutes.

They could be forgiven as they are not long back from a team holiday in South Africa.

But Jim Gavin was not letting them away with that.

He said: “The lack of clinical play, that potentially could have hurt us. It does give us something to take away.

“I wouldn’t use just being back two weeks as an excuse, you’re either clinical or you’re not and that just wasn’t good enough.”

One man who certainly was good enough was man of the match Brian Fenton who was brilliant in midfield and surged forward to score 1-3.

His goal killed off Kildare, coming just 60 seconds after Dean Rock had scored their first.

A fired-up Kildare had led 1-6 to 0-7 at the break.

But Dublin had scored 2-5 without reply before Kildare finally managed to end the onslaught with their next score in the 51st minute.

Dublin’s first goal came in the 45th minute when good work by veteran Bernard Brogan saw him palm the ball off to the on-running Rock and he brilliantly placed the ball to the far corner of Mark Donnellan’s net, 1-10 to 1-6.

From the very next attack, Brogan laid off the ball again, this time to Fenton and the Raheny man made it 2-10 to 1-6.

Game over. Just like that. Dublin, gone in 60 seconds.

For Kildare, the short trip back home will not have been easy. Indeed, they may well wonder are they any nearer the capital, or as far away as ever.

Because this was a Dublin team only a couple of weeks back from their team holiday in South Africa. It was their first game of the year after a third-string team participated in the O’Byrne Cup for them again.

The league does not really matter to Dublin. But staying in the top flight matters a lot to Kildare.

And trying to finally put one over Dublin too is a big motivator for the likes of the Lilywhites.

They had an opportunity last night. But, as these things tend to play out where Dublin are concerned, it was another opportunity lost.

Add it to the list. Add Kildare to the stats – no Leinster team since 2008 have beaten Dublin in the National League.

And yet, early on, Kildare were allowed believe a little in front of a small crowd of 26,027. The cruelty of it all.

The Dubs were sloppy in that first half. They only released their team on Saturday morning – but hours later predictably Jim Gavin made a change with Jonny Cooper replacing Eric Lowndes.

As the Dublin players made their way to their positions before throw-inm the Kildare team remained in a long huddle. The message was clear – it mattered the Kildare.

And within a few minutes, it was clear this was not the be-all and end-all for Dublin.

They lacked sharpness in possession, looked out of sorts at the back and when Rock clipped a very scoreable free wide in the opening minutes, a heavy January sigh went out around Croke Park.

This was not the Dublin of summer, it was a Dublin that didn’t really look like they wanted to be there.

In the ninth minute, a speculative long-range shot in by Paul Cribbin drifted across the face of the posts and appeared to be going wide.

The Dublin defence stopped. Stephen Cluxton stopped. But there on the endline at the back post was the completely unmarked Luke Flynn – who cleverly positioned his body to keep the ball in play before rolling it calmly inside Clutxon’s near post, 1-1 to no score.

But the goal woke them from their January slumber and Jim Gavin’s men responded with five points on the trot to hit the lead in the 20th minute.

Rock opened Dublin’s account in the 11th minute with a free before Niall Scully and Ciaran Kilkenny registered points from play.

Rock then added another free before Brogan – who had barely touched the ball until that point – kicked Dublin ahead.

It was tit for tat for the remainder of the first half, but when Rock screwed another scoreable free wide just before the half-hour mark it still looked as if Dublin were not quite at the pitch of the game.

Daniel Flynn had a glorious goal-chance soon after, but blazed his shot over the crossbar – when he might have been better off passing to the unmarked Eoin Doyle off his right shoulder.

Still, they went in leading 1-6 to 0-7. But never really came back out again.

Fenton said: “We had to have a good look at ourselves at half-time. Everybody knows ourselves it probably wasn’t up to our standards.”

They went back to their high standards after the break and the game as a contest ended after their two quick-fire goals.

Daniel Flynn netted a consolation goal for Kildare in injury-time.

But in truth, there was no consolation for Kildare.

Dublin, they injure your soul.

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